IMO just about any CD or box set sold from China will be a counterfeit so I would assume that yours is!

Some CD's in the Five Years and Who Can I Be Now sets have extensive clipping and are loud, others are very very good! I would have thought the Chinese counterfeit would just clone the original CD masters, which specific CD's are you referring to?

Buying from China to save shipping??? Have you not tried Amazon UK? it's something like 4 pounds to ship from them, you get the VAT off and you know you're getting an original!

I usually buy single CDs (and blu-rays) from Amazon UK because their shipping to New Zealand is cheaper than from Amazon US.

However, box sets tend to be really expensive on Amazon UK (both in terms of price and shipping), so I shop around. Usually the cheapest prices and shipping end up being eBay. Most of the time I'm happy with what I get from eBay but occasionally I get something which seems like it might be counterfeit... and when that happens it sucks because the sellers almost always want me to pay return shipping, which is often more than the box sets cost in the first place.

I just listened to some older CDs of Space Oddity and Hunky Dory. I had to turn them up, but once they were playing (in the background) I was struck by how engaging they were. More dramatic sounding. I never had that feeling when listening to my more recent CD copies (especially the Five Years CD). I assume that's because the older CDs have a higher DR?

On the other hand, I think the more recent CDs sound crisper at times (particularly on the snares in Hunky Dory).

Is there such a thing as a version of Hunky Dory that is both crisp-sounding and has a good dynamic range?

Half price items (CDs) from China ARE counterfeits (I guarantee it)! I see no reason to buy a counterfeit for any reason as no one other than the nasty counterfeiter benefits (at the artists, labels and consumers expense)! You're better off just stealing it for free as a download or buying something official!

So, it looks like I might have gotten ripped off, which could explain the loudness issue.

Sigh. It's like buying those cheap tablets for my girls... they work fine for a few weeks but then the ads start popping up, and the battery life tanks, and the things become coasters. And yes, those tablets are from China too.

Those of you in the US and UK are very lucky to be able to build your collections for a fraction of what it costs those of us in NZ (and other remote countries). Your shipping is cheaper, you spend less time dealing with damaged or missing items, you can return items for cheap (which means you're not "stuck" with counterfeits and end up buying CDs twice like I did for Led Zeppelin), and you get paid a lot more per hour when you factor in the exchange rate. Each CD (or LP) costs you a lot fewer work-hours than it does us.

I can see why so many people pirate music and movies here in NZ. I am in the tiny minority of people who actually bother to pay to build my collection. Sigh. Looks like I have "sucker" written all over my [digital] forehead.

So, it looks like I might have gotten ripped off, which could explain the loudness issue.

Sigh. It's like buying those cheap tablets for my girls... they work fine for a few weeks but then the ads start popping up, and the battery life tanks, and the things become coasters. And yes, those tablets are from China too.

Those of you in the US and UK are very lucky to be able to build your collections for a fraction of what it costs those of us in NZ (and other remote countries). Your shipping is cheaper, you spend less time dealing with damaged or missing items, you can return items for cheap (which means you're not "stuck" with counterfeits and end up buying CDs twice like I did for Led Zeppelin), and you get paid a lot more per hour when you factor in the exchange rate. Each CD (or LP) costs you a lot fewer work-hours than it does us.

I can see why so many people pirate music and movies here in NZ. I am in the tiny minority of people who actually bother to pay to build my collection. Sigh. Looks like I have "sucker" written all over my [digital] forehead.

I just found that Foobar is playing some tracks at louder volumes than other tracks... But if I look at the waveforms in an audio editor, they are the same... And if I use Windows Media Player, the volumes are the some.

So, for some reason, Foobar is performing its own volume adjustments.

Any idea why Foobar uses louder volumes on some files than others, even if the waveforms within those files are the same? And, most importantly, how to prevent these volume adjustments?

This is very alarming, because I am now worried that I have been deleting files for CDs that are "too loud" or "too quiet" when it may have been Foobar tampering with the volumes...

I just found that Foobar is playing some tracks at louder volumes than other tracks... But if I look at the waveforms in an audio editor, they are the same... And if I use Windows Media Player, the volumes are the some.

So, for some reason, Foobar is performing its own volume adjustments.

Any idea why Foobar uses louder volumes on some files than others, even if the waveforms within those files are the same? And, most importantly, how to prevent these volume adjustments?

This is very alarming, because I am now worried that I have been deleting files for CDs that are "too loud" or "too quiet" when it may have been Foobar tampering with the volumes...

Foobar has a "ReplayGain" feature which is turned on by default. That feature adjusts the volume of a track based on certain volume-related tags in the track's metadata.

This explains why the CDs I ripped recently might have different ReplayGain values from tracks that I've had on my PC for a long time.

I think at some point in the past I used MediaMonkey or another tool to analyse the volumes of my entire library, and that tool probably automatically added volume tags to all my files. Any CDs I've ripped since then haven't had those tags added.
So I think this explains why recent CDs (such as those Bowie sets) sound so much louder than the CDs I've had for a while.

Tripecac. You should contact the seller and complain about being sold a counterfeit CD set that doesn't play correctly. Ask for a refund. If they give you any problems, contact ebay's customer service and report the seller for selling poor quality counterfeit merchandise. Ebay should refund your money.